Ring of Life
by Hoollie
Summary: Collage student Aires just wanted to play her game, not be part of it! Now she finds herself trapped in the world of FF9. What role does she play? And what is this power awakening inside of her? (repost from 2012)
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own FF9. That belongs to Square Enix and the rest of those lucky peeps. Also, as a side note, its illegal to download a game you don't actually own. Im just say'n...Anywho, here we go...

Note: This is a story I had originally posted under a different account like…..6 or so years ago? And I stumbled upon it and was like, hell, why not? So…ta da!

Chapter One: NO IDEA

I can seriously say, without any doubt in my mind, that I have NO IDEA whats going on.

My day had started out normally enough. I had just got back from my collage math class ( which by the way was horrible. Damn you algebra!) and had made it back to my one room apartment not 15 minutes previous. I'd flopped down on my bed, my laptop not a few feet away and my game controller in my hands. In collage, I had found it SO much easier to put all my games as roms on my computer. Much less likely they'd get taken off with like my Legend of Dragoon and my Parasite Eve had already. Still don't know for the life of me WHY someone wanted them, but whatever.

After mulling over what it was that I had wanted to play, I finally decided on Final Fantasy 9. Good story, good characters, and I hadn't played it in about 3 years, so hey, seemed like a good time to start a new file. Going into my game screen and loading up my PSX, I inserted my FF9 iso, and waited for it to boot up.

…..

Nothing.

Just a blank screen.

I'd cursed, and tried to reset it, but my whole computer had froze. Cursing even more, I whacked the top corner of my computer, and went to force a shutdown, when the whole screen went white. I panicked, thinking 'OMG, I think I just broke my computer!' and suddenly Final Fantasy 9 started to play. Confused, I sat back, thinking that maybe it had fixed itself, when the lights in the house started turning on and off, then went out completely.

I was getting a little nervous, thinking maybe there were spooks in my apartment or something ( to much watching ghost hunters and paranormal state) and my computer screen was getting bright to the point where I had to cover my eyes. A sudden feeling of vertigo came over me, and I clamped my eyes shut to avoid nausea. Then it felt as though I was falling (off my bed?) and I opened my eyes to see what was going on.

I immediately regretted it.

I was heading quickly towards the ground. A paved road. A paved road with people on it. And I was about to fall on one of them.

I have NO IDEA what's going on.

~oOo~

A little boy walked down the street, clutching his ticket to his chest tightly. Alexandria was so big! Much bigger than his grandpa had described to him. And there were so many people! He adjusted a hat, a habit he had when he was nervous. Now if only he could find that ticket booth...

"HEY! LOOK OUT!"

Vivi blinked in confusion, wondering where the voice had come from. Not the left, not the right, he looked up, and his yellow orbs widened.

BAM!

Vivi and the person on top of him groaned. That had really hurt! The person shifted, moving off of him, and he pushed himself up as well.

"Hey, are you all r-" The person, a girl in her late teens, early twenties, with shoulder length white blonde hair and green eyes started to say, but froze. Not like just stopping her sentence froze, but full bodied, wide eyed spooked froze.

"Miss, are...are you alright?" Vivi asked tentatively, getting more and more nervous as she just stared at him. "Miss?"

She blinked seeming to come out of her daze, and cautiously looked around her.

"I really need to lay off those late night taco runs. They got me hallucinating again." She mumbled wide eyed.

Vivi had NO IDEA what she was talking about.

~oOo~

"Miss?"

I looked over to the one that I knew had to be Vivi, but, well, that can't be right. Vivi was a character in a game. And I was...well, I wasn't. So none of this made any sense. I mean, sure, i've had dreams where final fantasy character would randomly make a guest appearance, like a dream world easter egg, but all this seemed so real..like my scraped elbow, and the throbbing in my side where I landed on him, and him talking to me...wait.

"Uh... yeah, sorry um...kid." I said, standing up and brushing off the dirt on my knee length tan cargo shorts. Actually, now that I see it, I'm still wearing what I had on a moment ago. That's weird. Normally I have on crazy stuff in my dreams. But nope, just my shorts, my gray and blue vans, my black t-shirt with a gray elbow length shirt over it and my black fingerless gloves. How boring.

Vivi stood up as well, brushing off his blue coat, then looked up at me.

"I..It's all right." He said, then his eyes widened, and he started patting himself. "Oh no! Wh-where is it?"

"Where's what?' I asked.

"My ticket! It's gone!" He exclaimed, and started to sniffle.

 _Oh man. It's even a fake too._ I thought to myself, but hearing the little guy cry, even if this was a taco induced dream, still made me feel bad.

I started looking around our feet, and sure enough, laying on the ground a little ways away was the ticket. I reached down, grasping it in my hands, and held it out to the little guy.

"Here kid, don't cry. Is this it?"

His sniffles stopped and, well, I think he smiled. Not really sure what's going on under that hat of his.

"Th-thank you miss!"

I nodded.

"No problem" I said. "And enough with the 'miss' thing. My grandma says that. Names Aires"

 _Well, not really, more of a nickname actually._

"V-Vivi" He replied.

"Okay Vivi. Why don't we go get your ticket to the check-in counter?"

He nodded enthusiastically, and started walking towards the town square where the ticket counter was. I hung back a few steps behind him, absorbing my surroundings. It was mostly like how I remembered it from the game, banners strung up all over the place, weird looking people wandering around (that guy was a hippo!) and looking up I could see airships. AIRSHIPS. Wow was this ever the most detailed dream that I've ever had. So absorbed was I in looking around that it downright startled me when suddenly I heard,

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

 _Oh, he must have just been told his ticket was a fake. Poor kid._

I walked up to Vivi, putting a hand on his shoulder. Looking at the ticket master, who looked like some weird...dog...hybrid...thing, I asked,

"Sir, isn't there anything you can do for him?"

The ticket master shook his head, looking down sadly at the sniffling Vivi.

"No, I'm sorry. We've been getting a lot of these fakes today to." He replied, then reached into his pocket, handing Vivi what I recognized to be Tetra Master cards. "Here kid. Maybe these will make you feel better"

 _Wow those are some lame cards. Goblin, Fang, and Skeleton? Kids prolly find better cards in their breakfast cereal._

"Thanks" I heard Vivi say dejectedly. Didn't take a genius to know it didn't make him feel better.

"Come on Vivi" I said, looking down at the little black mage, taking his hand. "We'll go figure something else out."

 _Like roof hopping!_

"We...we will?" He asked, seeming to be pretty confused as to why I was helping him when I'd just met him.

"Of course!" I replied.

With Vivi in hand, we walked down the alleyway that I figured would be the one we'd meet up with Puck in. When I saw the guy on the ladder hammering away at a sign, I knew I was right. With a smile on my face, we went down the alley, carefully avoiding bumping into the ladder. We just waved, and with a confused expression, he slowly waved back, shook his head, and continued hammering.

"Did you know him Aires?" Vivi asked me quietly.

"Naw." I replied. "Just felt like it"

"Oh. Alrighty then"

It was near the end of the alleyway that I spotted Puck. He was standing there, looking much like the little street waif he was pretending to be. Hard to believe he was really a prince. Spotting us, he waved over to Vivi, who seemed to be happy to see a familiar face.

"Hey, what are you doing out here?" He said to Vivi, not even seeming to notice me.

"Well..my ticket.." Vivi began, but the rat kid cut him off with a devious smile.

"So you got yourself a fake, huh? Tough break there. Looki'n for a way in?"

Vivi nodded, eyes wide.

"Well.." Puck began, looking from Vivi and noticing me. "If you two want to get in, you gotta be my slaves!"

 _Hell to the no i'm gonna be his slave._ I growled internally.

"O..okay" Vivi agreed, a little to readily in my opinion. I knew how to get up there, and I didn't think id be able to put up with someone bossing me around in my own dream.

"Great!" The rat kid exclaimed. "Follow me!"

"Oi, I don't remember agreeing to this!" I growled out, eyes narrowed.

All the kid did was turn around, stick his tongue out at me, and say "To bad!" Before taking off down the street.

I could actually FEEL my eyebrow twitch.

Vivi looked up at me, his eyes wide and questioning. He really did look like a little kid like that.

"Aren't we gonna go?" He asked in a small voice.

I sighed, rubbing my eyes with my free hand, wondering when I was going to wake up. Mr. Ruther was going to go homicidal on my ass if I didn't turn in my essay tomorrow on 'The Tale of Two Cities'. I swear, seems like the older a teacher gets, the more generally angry they become.

"Yeah, let's go."

~oOo~

"So if we climb up this ladder, we can get there, right?"

Puck nodded, and I glanced up the, in my opinion, death trap.

 _Wonder where the moogle is?_

"-an go first" Puck finished saying to Vivi.

 _Crap! Missed it!_

"What?"

"I said." Puck started, looking at me "That you can go first!"

I blinked. But If I did that, a moogle's gonna land on me!

 _But it should be okay right? It's just a dream, or tacos...but either way, it shouldn't hurt, right? But, the whole falling thing hurt...maybe I fell outta bed and it was incorporated into my dream? Yeah, that must be it! So, everything's gonna be just fine!_

With that thought in my head, I grabbed onto the ladder and started climbing my way up, totally confident that everything would work out.

"Kupo.."

?

"Kupoooooooooooooo!"

I looked up and OH MY GOD!

BAM!

I felt the ground underneath me again, and a solid pain in my tailbone where I had landed.

 _Owwwwwww...wait, ow?_

"You alright kupo?"

"Aires! You okay?"

I looked up at the moogle, then over at a concerned Vivi and an indifferent Puck. I must have had a strange look on my face to as Vivi seemed to be getting even more worried.

"Uh, yeah" I replied. "Just, was pretty startled is all."

Vivi, though hesitantly, seemed to accept this answer, and the moogle jumped off of me, winding me some. I groaned, standing up and rubbing my sore tailbone. This was turning out to be a lot weirder than I first imagined. What if everything is seeming so real because...?

"Well, now that everythin's outta there, guess i'll be heading up then" Puck suddenly declared, grasping the ladder and effortlessly climbing up to the top. "Follow me slaves!"

"Why that little-"

I felt a tugging at my shirt, and looked down to see Vivi looking at me expectantly. Sighing, I scratched the back of my head more on reflex then anything.

"Well, lets go I guess. Hopefully no more moogles attack us on the way up." I said, walking over to the ladder. "Why don't you go up first Vivi? Ill be right behind you in case you slip."

He nodded nervously, then grasped the ladder, making a slow climb up, me following right behind. I really didn't like this ladder either, with every step the thing felt like it was about to break on you. Vivi must have felt like this as well, I could hear him whimpering every few steps when the wood would creak ominously.

When we reached the top, I saw Puck waiting there impatiently, his foot tapping an the roof and his arms folded over his chest. I narrowed my eyes at him, and he just snickered at me. Unfolding his arms, he pointed out over the houses.

"This way slaves!"

He quickly made his way over a series of wooden planks stretched out over the rooftops as if they were nothing. Stopping at the fourth roof, he turned around, waving us over.

I looked at Vivi, Vivi looked at me. We both looked at the wooden planks. Both of us had the same thing in mind.

 _We are SO not gonna make it over!_

Puck had NO IDEA what their problem was.

~oOo~

I was panting, gripping onto my knees and trying to stop my racing heart. Almost every plank I went across broke in the midst of me crossing it, causing me to do a run/jump in order for me to make it to the other side. It was a good thing that Vivi was in front of me whilst we were doing this to, otherwise I hadn't a clue as to how he would have made it.

"You...little bastard. Those things...have like what...a 30 pound weight limit?" I said while catching my breath.

Puck shrugged nonchalantly.

"Don't know. Never brought someone across as fat as you before"

I think I saw red...yep. There was definitively red lining my vision.

"You...you...! I'm 112 pounds of AWESOME over here! That is FAR from FAT!" I exclaimed. I could feel my hands twitching. No, better not strangulate the prince of Burmecia...

"Whatever helps you sleep at night."

On second thought...

"Mister Puck? How much farther?" I suddenly heard Vivi ask.

Puck looked over, then pointed to a building next to us.

"Once we cross this building, there's a gap in the wall that'll let us slip in unnoticed by the guards. After that, you guys are on your own." He stated to the black mage, then started down the building and disappeared into a hole I hadn't even noticed before.

I sighed.

"Well, I guess here we go Vivi."

I grabbed his hand again, helping him balance over the last stretch and we approached the hole. Vivi crawled in first, but I eyes it wearily. I may be kinda small, but this was gonna be a tight fit. I put my head in first, and shimmied my was through, feeling someone on the other side grasp onto my hands and help pull me the rest of the way though.

"Thanks Vivi" I said, setting my feet down on the ground and looking around me.

The room was crowded with people, very exited people. On further inspection I could see Zidane and Blank playing out their fighting scene in the middle walkway. It was weird to watch. Even in a fake fight, they seemed pretty skilled, but at the same time, it was unnerving. The clang of their swords was ringing in my ears, the cheers of the audience, and Vivi gripping my hand tightly so as to not get lost in the crowd.

"Are...are you okay? You look...worried." I heard Vivi ask over the roar.

"Wha? No, it's cool Vivi, im fine. Just thinking. Let's just enjoy the play, shall we?" I replied.

He nodded, and we turned our attention to the play.

I had NO IDEA how this was gonna turn out


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: It's a BOMB!

Chapter 2: It's a BOMB!

The play really was going splendidly. (You know, if you're into that kind of thing.) Zidane and Blank had poofed a while ago, probably to try and take off with the princess, and now the rest of the story was progressing, the part of the story that wasn't showed in the game. The two countries at war, Marcus and Cornilia sneaking out to see one another...a whole lot of boring crap in my opinion really. I can feel myself fall a little more asleep with each yawn I take. Vivi seemed really into it though, hadn't taken his eyes off it once this whole time.

 _If im not already asleep, this will sure as hell put me there..._

"Uh oh"

"Uh oh? What's uh oh?" I asked Vivi, who was frantically pulling at my shirt.

He pointed over at at a guard, Haagen I think his name was, was heading our way. The fragger had spotted us.

"Awe crap Vivi! Come on!"

We ran towards the stage, away from the knight. Looking in the stage direction, I noticed that Dagger was already there, as was Zidane and Steiner. ( How did I miss that?) Dagger was laying on the ground, and Steiner was on his knees having a meltdown of some kind. Ah well, he'll quickly get over it. We jumped onto the stage, the knight right on our heels. Leaping over the prone body of the princess, Vivi turned, THOUGHT he aimed, and shouted, "FIRE!"

Sure, a ball of fire did spit out of the end of his staff, and sure, it went in the GENERAL direction of Haagen, but instead of burning the hair off the knight, it caught the end of Dagger's white mage robe, setting it in a small fire. She leaped up, hopping up and down, and call me an ass, but I found it to be HILARIOUS. Throwing off the robe, she quickly brushed the charred remains off of herself.

"Princess! You're ALIVE!" Steiner cried out in joy.

"How did you figure she was dead? Dude, there was like, no blood or anything." I said. I mean come on now. How thick could you get?

"YOU! You must be in cahoots with this thief! I will have you arrested for harming the princess!" He exclaimed, brandishing his sword. "Princess, you must come back with me!"

Suddenly another knight showed up, but wait, if I remember correctly...

"You needn't worry your highness!'

Oh yeah, that totally had to be Blank. I could see the smiles on Zidane, Cinna, and Marcus' faces too. They knew as well.

"Good work!" Steiner exclaimed. "This will be remembered as the Pluto knights finest hour!"

Blank came over to us, holding his sword up in a battle stance. At the same time, Zidane pulled out his daggers, Cinna his hammer, and Marcus his broadsword as well. I held onto Vivi's hand tightly, pulling him behind the guys along with me, Dagger following my lead.

"Just relax princess. We'll get you outta here!" Blank stated with a wide grin on his face.

Steiner looked totally affronted.

"WHAT? You're not one of my knights!"

Zidane took a step forward towards Steiner, Blank, Cinna and Marcus grouping next to him.

"You can just..." he began,

"...leave the princess..." continued Cinna, getting his hammer ready,

"...To us!" They all shouted as one.

"Villans! How dare you trick the princess!"

I stepped back, pulling Vivi with me and grasping onto Dagger as I went. We really didn't need to be so close to this. Good thing I thought that to.

Steiner, in a fit of...er...knightly rage swung his sword down at Zidane, who laughed and quickly back flipped out of the way. With his focus on Zidane, Cinna came up from behind, swinging his hammer and hitting the Pluto knight in the side.

"Why you..!"

He turned, swinging his sword at the odd looking man, who just barely dodged by holding up his hammer in time. Now with his back turned towards the others, both Marcus and Blank gave a solid kick to the back of the knight's armor. I could practically see the steam coming out of his helmet at this point he was so pissed off, and it wasn't getting any better for him either. One of the guys would distract, and the others would slap him around as if it were some kind of children's game. Dagger I could tell was getting worried, her eyes were wide with distress and one of her hands covered her mouth.

"Sh...should we help them?" I heard Vivi ask me.

"Uh..."

 _How in the world would I help? Glare him into unconsciousness? I don't know how to use a weapon even if I had one!_

"I think they got it pretty covered." I said instead to the little black mage.

"Yeah, I guess you're right..." He relied, just in time for me to hear Steiner shout "Armor Break!"

CLANG!

Blank's armor busted open, and out popped...bugs. Big ass bugs. Like, atomic holocaust, laugh in the face of raid bugs.

"N-NO! I hate oglops! I hate oglops!" Steiner exclaimed as they overran him.

And not just him either. They were heading for EVERYBODY. The ginormous ladybug things were everywhere, on everything! Blank was flailing, as one was in his hair, and OH MY GOD one's on me!

"Get it off! Get it off!"

Vivi was wide eyed, he didn't know what to do. Hopefully not try to burn the thing off. I grabbed it's hairy body ( ew ew EW) and threw it away from me and back at Steiner, who got hit on the head with it, sending him even more into a frenzy. With a deep shudder I looked around, noticing Zidane taking Dagger to another area of the stage/ship that we where on.

"Come on Vivi, this way!"

"O..okay!"

We ran the way I saw the two take off in, and came to a halt in the middle of the deck by the two. Zidane was giving us a 'So who the hell are you anyway?' kind of look, but we were all a little to busy to be asking each other such stupid questions at this time. Well, I thought so anyway. I already knew them! The sound of armor was coming up behind us, and I already knew before he even showed up that it was Steiner again.

"Release the princess at once!" He bellowed. Or tried to anyway. His voice was still shaky from the oglop episode. I shuddered. As a matter of fact, so was I.

"Steiner! Don't follow me anymore!" Dagger shouted over to him, clutching her hands to her chest.

The knight seemed taken aback by this, and seemed to struggle with himself for a moment.

"Hmmm...errr...uh... I'm sorry princess, but I cannot comply!"

He started coming more towards us again, but the stage/ship we were on gave a sudden lurch, knocking most of us to out feet. I felt Vivi grip onto me tightly, eyes wide.

"Everybody hang on! We're tak'n off!" Zidane shouted in generalization to everyone.

The ship we were on started rising higher, and higher, and pulling away from the castle when I saw it. The cannons. Dear god and christ they were about to fire on us.

"Watch out! Cannons!" I roared out.

"Cannons?" Zidane exclaimed, just as three 'BOOMS!' rand out.

I saw one of them heading for me and Vivi, and with reflexes I didn't even know I had ( and would probably hurt a little later after the adrenalin went down) I pushed us out of the way right as it drove into the ship behind me, so close that I felt the wind woosh up my shirt as it dug in.

"You guys okay?" Zidane called out to us.

"Y..Yeah, we're good." I shakily said back, then added with a bit more venom. "Would have been better if the fat lady hadn't just tried to shishkabob us though"

"How DARE you insult the queen! She was... just making sure you all couldn't run off with the princess!" Steiner roared, his back turned away from the castle.

"Dude are you slow? One of those things could have hit her too! Then what, huh?"

Steiner's face was turning an interesting shade of red. Almost as red as that bomb that was hovering behind him.

Wait.

There's a bomb.

Oh snap.

"Dude! Turn around! It's a BOMB!" I shouted to him, dramatically pointing my arms to the oh nos that was behind him. Seriously. Does he not notice how bright it is behind him? AND ITS GETTING BIGGER.

"I'll not fall for that trick!" He scoffed, raising his sword and preparing for battle once again.

"Look behind you!" Zidane added.

"Please Steiner! Behind you!"

He merely shrugged of the warning.

"Surrender at once!"

"There's a bomb!" Yelled Vivi, watching in horror as the bomb got bigger.

"Screw this! EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" I screamed as loud as I could, grabbing onto Vivi with one hand and clutching the harpoon inbeded into the deck with the other.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Zidane grab onto Dagger, doing about the same thing with her. Steiner had finally turned around to see what all the commotion was about, and dropped to the ground, mouth a gape as be realized we weren't just messing with him. The bomb seemed to smile, it's large, orb like body hovering above the deck a moment longer before it suddenly imploded inwards on itself, and from that a blast erupted from the place it just was. I felt intense heat wash over my body, I knew the ship was on fire. I could hear shouting coming from the ship, but we were free from the chains, the ship slowly gliding down into a descent towards it's next destination.

Evil Forest.

Which, although accurate, is kind of a stupid and unimaginative name really.

"Hang on everyone! We're gonna crash!" I could hear Baku shout out though what seemed to me speakers of some kind.

We hit the ground hard, and I heard multiple shouts. Was one mine?

And then the world went dark.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Sleep Little Dragon

"Hey! Hey Aires! Wake up! Mr. Ruther's gonna kick your ass if he catches you sleeping in his class again!"

I groaned, squinted my eyes open blearily, letting them adjust to my surroundings. My head was pounding ferociously, and it was making it difficult to collect my thoughts.

"Hey, you okay? You look kind of sick..."

Looking in the direction the voice had come from, I spotted one of my classmates, Ryan...er...something or another, staring at me curiously. My arms were crossed on my desk in a pillow fashion, and I began to wonder to myself.

 _I guess it really was just a taco dream. Man, but it all seemed so real..._

"Naw dude, im fine. Just some bad food I ate yesterday. S' cool" I replied.

I went to scratch the back of my head, but drew it back quickly as a sharp pain assaulted me when I did so. Looking down at my hand, I immediately found out why.

"Holy crap! I'm bleeding! I got to go see the nurse or something!"

Ryan just stared at me with a look of confusion.

"You're not bleeding. Are you sure your okay? Why don't you just go back to sleep. I'll cover for you." He said calmly. Now it was my turn to look at him confused.

I held out my hand to him, the one covered in blood.

"How is this not bleeding? This is definitively enough to merit a trip to the doctor!"

I made to get up out of my seat, but a sudden hand on my shoulder stopped me from doing so. It was strong. Too strong. Especially from I lanky guy like him. That's when I started noticing the other people in the classroom. They were all stock still, unmoving, just starring vacantly in front of them. I started getting alarmed. Something was SERIOUSLY not right with this situation.

Ryan cocked his head to the side, eyes widening WAY to much, and even the angle of his head looked funny.

"Go to sleep Airesia. Sleep well, you don't have to wake up..."

Okay, now I KNOW somethings wrong. VERY few people knew my real name, and Ryan was DEFINITALLY not one of them. Once again, I tried moving away, but his grip was freakishly strong and the pounding in my head was only getting worse.

"Lemme go Ryan! There's something WRONG with you!"

I went to push him off, and his hand shot out, grabbing me by the wrist. Looking straight at him, I went to go tell him off again, when I noticed something more than just a little freaky.

His face was peeling off.

The skin under his eyes began to droop down, and his mouth started to widen into a far to large, clown-like smile. A smile with some seriously sharp teeth. Then I heard it. Movement from throughout the rest of the classroom. Glancing away from the Parasite Eve moment I had just experience, I watched wide eyed as the rest of the classroom turned towards me, their faces deforming in the same manner that Ryan's just had.

I could feel myself shaking. This was to entirely fucked up. They were drawing closer, slowly, sluggishly, like they weren't entirely sure how to move.

 _I knew I shoulda read ' The idiot's guide to surviving the zombie apocalypse!'_

"Now go to sleep. It will all be over soon..."

I could feel the throbbing in my head. It was all making me so sleepy, so tired. But I couldn't go to sleep could I? Not in a room full of zombies anyway. It was hard though, I could feel my eyelids drooping, struggling to stay open. The...thing... next to mes smile widened. It could tell I was loosing. Whether from exhaustion or blood loss, it was anyone's guess.

 _No..no..NO!_

My hands balled into fists. There was NO WAY I was just going to lie down and let...whatever this was happen. I didn't know exactly what that was particularity, but I knew one thing. It wasn't good. The thing holding onto me suddenly let out a shrill, inhuman hiss, and tore it's hands away from me quickly. They were smoking.

The hollow friendliness it was looking at me before vanished in an instant, and it glared at me with such rage and hate in it's eyes that it made me shiver at the unpleasantness of it all. I leaped back out of my seat away from it, and made a b-line for the classroom door. Grasping the handle, I made to turn it, but it wouldn't budge for me.

 _It can't be locked! I'm INSIDE the classroom!_

There was chuckling behind me, low, raspy, _inhuman_ chuckling. I looked behind me. The...zombies... had amassed themselves in one large group, there bodies melding before me in a sickening hodgepodge of flesh and limbs.

"You cannot escape, now that I have found you." It spoke, the voice coming from all the many mouths crisscrossing it's frame. "You'll die here and now little dragon, before you ever have a chance to become a threat to me..."

The thing...oozed toward me, a dozen arms reaching out, grabbing me around the throat. I choked, my vision going blurry. Painful hissing reached my ears, and all I could think about before my world went black was,

 _What did it mean by 'little dragon?'_

~oOo~

"-ink alright? Did the potion work?"

"The bleeding stopped..."

"..awful lotta flailing..."

The voices around me were starting to get on my nerves. Didn't they realize how bad of a headache I had at the moment? I groaned, pushing my body more in on itself and and holding my hands to my head in an attempt to just make them GO AWAY. I felt a hand at my shoulder, and immediately tensed. Oh god, I was still in that Resident Evil wannabe place, was I?

"You okay now? You took quite a fall when we crashed here. You're lucky you didn't end up underneath the ship!"

 _The ship?_

Uncurling myself, I pushed my body up so that I was sitting on my knees, and with my eyes open and a clear view of my surroundings, I took in what was around my. Moss and other vegetation was beneath me, pleasantly soft really. We were in some kind of woods, the trees thick, and greyish blue in color. Vines wrapped around them and anything else they seemed to come into contact with tightly, and looking up, the canopy of the forest almost completely blocked out the sun. Mist weaved itself between the trees like spooks, like a living thing. Maybe it was.

To my left, The fires from the ship still burned, a flickering of orange in this dark place. I could hear people calling out from inside, orders to put out the fires and make sure everyone was accounted for.

"Are you okay?"

For the first time I looked at my, well, rescuers I guess they were. Cinna and Blank were looking at me, well, I assumed Blank was, his head was pointed in this direction, expectant looks on their faces. Prolly thought I had brain damage or something. My head did hurt enough, even if the pain was ebbing away.

 _Am I okay? This is getting FAR to real for me. And right when I think things are getting back to normal, It gets even more freaky then whats going on now. Just what's going on?_

"No, not really." I mumble truthfully.

Cinna and Blank frowned, and Blank offered his hand out to me. I accepted it, letting him help pull me up and onto my own two feet.

"Hey we never did catch your name" Blank said as we all walked back towards the ship. "I'm Blank!"

"Cinna."

I nodded in acknowledgment. I already knew their names, but they didn't need to know that.

"My name's Aires."

They in turn nodded. When we reached the entrance to the ship, Cinna stopped, and waved for us to continue.

"I'm just gonna go...look for something. You guys keep going." He said, and started looking around outside.

 _That's right. His doll. Hehe, wonder what Dagger would think if she knew?_

"Alright bro. I'm just gonna take Aires here to help me clean up." He replied with a shrug.

 _Crap. I gotta clean? Lame._

We walked a little further into the ship, when we spotted Zidane on his was out.

"Hey Zidane! Where you headed?" Blank asked, stopping him as he passed. "And what was up with you just jumping off the ship like that?"

"I didn't jump off! I was thrown off on impact!" He countered, crossing his arms. "And as for where, im heading out to the forest. I can't find the princess anywhere."

"The princess? Oh no, Vivi!" I suddenly shouted. How could I forget? "Did you see Vivi? Maybe he's with the princess!"

"The little guy that was with you?" Zidane asked curiously.

I nodded.

"Yeah, that's him! Look, we gotta help him. He could get into a lot of trouble if he's left out there by himself!"

Zidane seemed to consider this for a moment, then nodded, grinning widely.

"Alright, come with then! Two heads are better then one right? We'll find him in no time!"

I felt myself get wide- eyed ay that.

"But...er...i don't have anything to fight with so..."

 _Or even know how to fight for that matter._

"That's okay. I'm sure Cinna can find something around here for you to use. I'll meet up with you in a bit, okay? Need to grab some potions." He said, then held out his hand. "Names Zidane by the way."

"Er... Aires"

His grin grew.

"Alright Aires, see ya in a bit!"

I just stood there for a bit, and I must have looked weird because next I knew, Blank was shaking my arm in an attempt to pull me out of my stupor.

"Yeah...so...guess ill go find Cinna then..." I mumbled to myself, heading back to the outside where I knew Cinna was still looking for his Garnet doll.

"Be careful out there, this place isn't called Evil Forest because of it's scenic waterfalls and friendly neighborhood." I heard Blank call to me as I left.

I waved to him, not turning around, wondering just what I was going to do.

~oOo~

"Hey Cinna!" I called out to the odd looking man who was rummaging though a series of boxes. He didn't even acknowledge me. "CINNA!"

"It's gotta be around here somewhere...poor thing...what it it got caught in the fire..?" He mumbled to himself, still not hearing me.

"OI! Cinna, hey...um...I FOUND IT!" I called out to him.

Almost comically his head popped out of a box, and he rushed towards me.

"You found it?" He said excitedly, then as an after thought said "Hey, wait. Who told you about...?"

 _Awe great. Way to go dumbass._

"Um, I uh, heard some of the guys talking about it in the ship. About a doll?" I said uncertainly, hoping he would buy it.

He did.

Grasping my shoulders, he started shaking me in his excitement. It was starting to make me nauseous, and I must have been turning green because he started to look sheepish and let me go.

"Oh, uh, sorry 'bout that. But, my doll?"

"Yeah, um, before that though, Zidane asked me to ask you if maybe you had something around here to, you know, keep me from getting mauled by wild beasties and the like. I gotta go find my friend Vivi before something of the like get him." I quickly answered back.

"Oh, Zidane asked? Well if you found my doll, I guess I can get you something that should work for you." He said, and started rummaging though a box to our left. "Are they even still in here..? Been a while..." he mumbled. "Ah Ha! Here we are!"

He held out to me what looked like two plain iron rings with a cross hold in the middle wrapped in thin leather. They were dented in places, and looked rather heavily used.

"Here. These used to belong to Mara, but, well, she's not using them anymore, and now they're really just taking up room."

I grabbed the rings, looking them over more. They were actually pretty light weight, and twirling them around on my finger. They seemed like they'd at least help me a bit if I, I dunno, beat them with it or something.

"Here, you might want this stuff too" Cinna added, and I almost didn't hear him as I was actually starting to have quite a bit of fun just messing with the rings. Flinging them in the air a bit, twirling them, quickly spinning them and catching them suddenly. This seemed pretty easy actually.

Cinna handed me a pair of black gloves with plating going up the wrists, a strap which I assumed was for the rings, and what looked to be a bag of some kind. It was black, and looked to be made out of some kind of leather.

"Here, these were Mara's too." He said watching me replace my gloves with the ones he had given me, and attaching the strap to my waist, clicking the rings in place and attaching the bag to the strap as well so it rested on my front right, while the rings hung at my sides. "You're pretty good with those rings you know. Maybe it was a good thing we kept Mara's stuff after all."

 _Who is Mara anyway? I don't remember any Mara in the game._

"So, who's Mara?" I asked causally, making sure everything was in place. I heard Cinna give a deep sigh, frowning.

"Mara is...was...Ruby's older sister. She was with us here up until a few years ago, when the Mist Sickness swept through Lindblum, taking Mara with it." He answered sadly.

 _Mist Sickness?_

"Oh." Was all I could reply with. "Sorry"

 _I guess that's why you never saw her in the game..._

"Yeah well, like I said, it was a few years ago. We're all getting over it now, so it's okay" He stated, scratching the back of his head.

"Are...you sure I can take these? I can give them right back if you want."

He shook his head.

"No, it's okay. Mara would be happy to know her stuff wasn't going to waste." He said with a smile. "Now, about my...?"

I blinked. Oh yeah! I had almost forgot.

"Oh right! Well, I heard some guys talking about how they saw a doll in the music room. Does that help any?"

His eyes got wide, and he grinned broadly.

 _Dude needs to see a dentist._

"The music room? Right! I never did look there yet! Thanks!" He exclaimed, and faster then a guy with his structure should be able to move, he took off into the ship, leaving me there to wonder how he was able to take off so fast.

 _Well, guess I go find Zidane now, and prolly Steiner too if memory serves correct. With them, I should be able to find Vivi and Dagger! Just, hopefully I don't manage to get myself killed in the process. It would be SUPER LAME on my part if I got taken out this early in the game. Or...whatever this is now._


End file.
